Dev Nath Pathak
Biographic Data
| ID | 3603422 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Dev Nath Pathak |
| GIVEN NAMES | Dev Nath |
| FAMILY NAME | Pathak |
| SIGNATURE | PATHAK D N |
| AFFILIATIONS | South Asian University |
| ORCID | 0009-0001-1010-3068 |
| VERIFIED | No |
| TOTAL WORKS | 17 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 2 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 16 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 1 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2011 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 1 |
A Ghumakkaṛ of Modern Mithila
Vaidyanāth Miśrā (1911–1998) earned popularity and literary fame with many pen names such as Vidyārthī, Vaideh, Yātrī, and Nāgārjun. Known for writing prose and poetry in Hindi, Maithili, and Sanskrit in early twentieth-century Mithila, inspired by a significant older compatriot, Rāhul Sāṅkṛtyāyan (1893–1963), he switched identifications, from _sanātan hindu dharam_ (eternal Hindu way of life) to Buddhism. Committed to the idea of _ghumakkaṛī_ (w…
Towards the Subjectivities Underneath
Neighbourhoods and Neighbourliness in Urban South Asia
Seeing South Asia
Hari Mohan Jha’s Khattar Kaka
As the religious meanings and practices of Hinduism came to be codified in the mid-twentieth century, apposite forces were at work, critiquing and interrogating the same. This paper disentangles the biographic and literary work of the renowned twentieth century modern Maithili litterateur Hari Mohan Jha and his fictional character Khattar Kaka, a caricature who critiqued the increasingly Brahminical and closed world of Hinduism. Kaka’s subversive…
Being and becoming (of/with) Burawoy
Reading public sociology with Burawoy amounts to an engagement with the process of being and becoming a sociologist. The blending of text and context offers a hermeneutics in which theory and theorist are political actors striving for dialectic of utopia and anti-utopia. In such a scheme this article turns inward to the context of sociology and anthropology in South Asia to adjudge the limits and possibility of public sociology
Idea of Research-Writing in Sociology
Following Alwin Gouldner (1971), it is pertinent to perpetually ask a seemingly all-time relevant question. And the question is, what do sociologists do? In the manner of doing sociology of sociology, and by a polemical resurrection of fragments from the dominant practices of sociologists, this essay brings forth general understanding about the idea of research-writing in contemporary India. It underlines the anomalies in the practice of research…
Intersections of Contemporary Art, Anthropology and Art History in South Asia
In Blogospheres
This article will focus on the ‘blogosphere’ in India as an emerging forum for critical readings of social and political events and issues. By concentrating on the blogosphere, read as a morphology of horizontal societal communication enabled through a network of blogs and social media sites on the internet, we have tried to offer a glimpse into the kind of issues and interactions that various groups and communities are engaging with and the scop…
Folklore’s Contemporariness
The folklore studies scholar, such as Dorson (1976, Folklore and fakelore: Essays toward the discipline of folk studies, Harvard: Harvard University Press), was emphatic about the distinction between folklore and ‘fake lore’, one being authentic and the other as invented by the popular industry; however, he paradoxically maintained interest in the contemporariness of folklore. This was a paradox since the contemporariness of folklore is largely, …
Melodramatic South Asia
What is remarkably unique of the popular cinema in the region of South Asia? How does it lead beyond the vexed notions of the contemporary milieu, namely, hybrid local? How does it transcend the idea of nationally restricted local too? Looking through eclectic motley of popular cinema in the region, this article seeks to unravel such questions with reflexive propositions. It paves the way to comprehend cinematic identity of the region with the ad…
In Pursuit of the Spectacles of Success
The pursuit of success is a leitmotif in the domain of education in India like anywhere else. It is, however, fraught with manifold anomalies. The latter consistently manifest in the news reports, advertisements of the institutes of education, popular cinematic tales, excerpted mythological instance and institutional manoeuvrings of the schools. The anomaly, in short, is expressed in the spectacles of success, a kind of fetish, sustained by the d…
Consumer Culture, Modernity and Identity
In the midst of myriad dimensions of consumer practices, notions, values (pride and prejudices), culture, nation and identity are not unalloyed monoliths. Nothing remains pristine and in the milieu
Cultural Imagination of Human Development? Framing Questions in a Preliminary Quest
Could there be development without culture? A question, answered in negative by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), leads further to ask another probing question: could there be human development without cultural imagination? An obvious answer will be in negation, once again. However, it is pertinent to ask as to what notion of cultural imagination of human development stems from the dominant perspective…
Sociology in India
The Iconic Female
Timepass
Idea of Research-Writing in Sociology
Following Alwin Gouldner (1971), it is pertinent to perpetually ask a seemingly all-time relevant question. And the question is, what do sociologists do? In the manner of doing sociology of sociology, and by a polemical resurrection of fragments from the dominant practices of sociologists, this essay brings forth general understanding about the idea of research-writing in contemporary India. It underlines the anomalies in the practice of research…
Cultural Imagination of Human Development? Framing Questions in a Preliminary Quest
Could there be development without culture? A question, answered in negative by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), leads further to ask another probing question: could there be human development without cultural imagination? An obvious answer will be in negation, once again. However, it is pertinent to ask as to what notion of cultural imagination of human development stems from the dominant perspective…
Timepass
Sociology in India
The Iconic Female
Cultural Imagination of Human Development? Framing Questions in a Preliminary Quest
Could there be development without culture? A question, answered in negative by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), leads further to ask another probing question: could there be human development without cultural imagination? An obvious answer will be in negation, once again. However, it is pertinent to ask as to what notion of cultural imagination of human development stems from the dominant perspective…
In Pursuit of the Spectacles of Success
The pursuit of success is a leitmotif in the domain of education in India like anywhere else. It is, however, fraught with manifold anomalies. The latter consistently manifest in the news reports, advertisements of the institutes of education, popular cinematic tales, excerpted mythological instance and institutional manoeuvrings of the schools. The anomaly, in short, is expressed in the spectacles of success, a kind of fetish, sustained by the d…
Consumer Culture, Modernity and Identity
In the midst of myriad dimensions of consumer practices, notions, values (pride and prejudices), culture, nation and identity are not unalloyed monoliths. Nothing remains pristine and in the milieu
Melodramatic South Asia
What is remarkably unique of the popular cinema in the region of South Asia? How does it lead beyond the vexed notions of the contemporary milieu, namely, hybrid local? How does it transcend the idea of nationally restricted local too? Looking through eclectic motley of popular cinema in the region, this article seeks to unravel such questions with reflexive propositions. It paves the way to comprehend cinematic identity of the region with the ad…
Intersections of Contemporary Art, Anthropology and Art History in South Asia
In Blogospheres
This article will focus on the ‘blogosphere’ in India as an emerging forum for critical readings of social and political events and issues. By concentrating on the blogosphere, read as a morphology of horizontal societal communication enabled through a network of blogs and social media sites on the internet, we have tried to offer a glimpse into the kind of issues and interactions that various groups and communities are engaging with and the scop…
Folklore’s Contemporariness
The folklore studies scholar, such as Dorson (1976, Folklore and fakelore: Essays toward the discipline of folk studies, Harvard: Harvard University Press), was emphatic about the distinction between folklore and ‘fake lore’, one being authentic and the other as invented by the popular industry; however, he paradoxically maintained interest in the contemporariness of folklore. This was a paradox since the contemporariness of folklore is largely, …
Idea of Research-Writing in Sociology
Following Alwin Gouldner (1971), it is pertinent to perpetually ask a seemingly all-time relevant question. And the question is, what do sociologists do? In the manner of doing sociology of sociology, and by a polemical resurrection of fragments from the dominant practices of sociologists, this essay brings forth general understanding about the idea of research-writing in contemporary India. It underlines the anomalies in the practice of research…
Neighbourhoods and Neighbourliness in Urban South Asia
Seeing South Asia
Hari Mohan Jha’s Khattar Kaka
As the religious meanings and practices of Hinduism came to be codified in the mid-twentieth century, apposite forces were at work, critiquing and interrogating the same. This paper disentangles the biographic and literary work of the renowned twentieth century modern Maithili litterateur Hari Mohan Jha and his fictional character Khattar Kaka, a caricature who critiqued the increasingly Brahminical and closed world of Hinduism. Kaka’s subversive…
Being and becoming (of/with) Burawoy
Reading public sociology with Burawoy amounts to an engagement with the process of being and becoming a sociologist. The blending of text and context offers a hermeneutics in which theory and theorist are political actors striving for dialectic of utopia and anti-utopia. In such a scheme this article turns inward to the context of sociology and anthropology in South Asia to adjudge the limits and possibility of public sociology
Towards the Subjectivities Underneath
A Ghumakkaṛ of Modern Mithila
Vaidyanāth Miśrā (1911–1998) earned popularity and literary fame with many pen names such as Vidyārthī, Vaideh, Yātrī, and Nāgārjun. Known for writing prose and poetry in Hindi, Maithili, and Sanskrit in early twentieth-century Mithila, inspired by a significant older compatriot, Rāhul Sāṅkṛtyāyan (1893–1963), he switched identifications, from _sanātan hindu dharam_ (eternal Hindu way of life) to Buddhism. Committed to the idea of _ghumakkaṛī_ (w…
Sociology (12 works) · Art (6 works) · History (6 works) · Epistemology (5 works) · History (5 works) · Philosophy (5 works) · Political science (5 works) · Politics (5 works) · Aesthetics (4 works) · Anthropology (4 works)